ME,    DALLAS'S 

LETTER 


MEXICAN   TREATY; 


RE-PRINTED  FROM  THE   PUBLIC  LEDGER 


June  15,  1849. 


MR,   DALLAS'S 


LETTER 


ON  THE 


MEXICAN   TREATY; 


RE-PRINTED  FROM  THE  PUBLIC  LEDGER 


Off 


June  15,  1849. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

UNITED  STATES  BOOK  AND  JOB  PRINTING  ESTABLISHMENT,  LEDGER  BUILDING. 

1849. 


THOUGHTS 


ON 


MR.  TRIST'S  TREATY. 


[The  gentleman  to  whom  the  following  letter  was  addressed,  having  obtained  the 
consent  of  his  correspondent,  has  handed  it  to  us  for  publication.  It  is  valuable  as  a 
cotemporaneous  and  comprehensive  view  of  the  motives  and  features  of  our  Treaty 
with  Mexico.  We  believe  this  most  able  and  interesting  document  will  attract 
attention.  The  reader  will  be  struck  with  observing,  how,  even  in  less  than  a  year 
since  its  date,  the  shades  of  fact  and  opinion,  so  important  to  the  truth  of  history, 
fade  away.  Its  publication  at  this  time  makes  it  even  more  interesting  than  if 
published  at  the  time  of  its  date.  We  thank  the  correspondent  of  its  author  for 
selecting  our  paper  as  the  channel  for  its  publication.]— Ledger. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  cannot  agree  with  your  conclusion  as  to 
the  doubtful  effects  of  our  treaties  in  general.  It  is  hardly  fair 
to  say  that  we  have  been  out-witted  in  the  game  of  diplomacy. 
In  truth,  we  have  mostly  attained  what  we  aimed  to  attain,  and 
have  very  seldom  yielded  to  a  proposition  without  being  quite 
convinced  that  its  operations  would  be  beneficial  to  ourselves. 
Perhaps  we  have  indulged  too  much  eagerness  for  treaty- 
making — sometimes  forcing  artificial  relations  where  nature 
never  intended  any  to  exist — sometimes  deluded  by  theories  of 
trade,  and  now  and  then  impelled  by  a  generous  sentiment,  or 
allured  by  a  plausible  profession.  Like  true  Yankees,  we  have 
occasionally  found  delight  in  making  a  bargain,  merely  for 
bargaining's  sake.  Thus,  during  our  seventy-two  years  of  in 
dependent  existence,  we  have  entered  into  no  less  than  ninety- 
nine  international  contracts,  exclusive  of  Indian  ones ;  and  [ 


will  repeat  to  you,  without  stopping  to  comment  upon  them, 
the  names  of  the  forty-one  sovereignties  with  whom  we  have 
so  contracted:  1,  France;  2,  Great  Britain;  3,  The  Nether 
lands  ;  4,  Sweden ;  5,  Prussia ;  6,  Morocco ;  7,  Algiers ;  8, 
Spain;  9,  Tripoli;  10,  Russia;  11,  Tunis;  12,  Columbia; 
13,  Central  America ;  14,  Denmark ;  15,  The  Hanseatic  Re 
publics ;  16,  Mexico;  17,  Brazil;  18,  Austria;  19,  Ottoman 
Porte ;  20,  Chili ;  21,  The  Two  Sicilies ;  22,  Siam ;  23,  Mus 
cat ;  24,  Venezuela;  25,  Peru:  26,  Greece;  27,  Texas;  28, 
Sardinia;  29,  Equador;  30,  Hanover;  31,  Portugal;  32,  New 
Grenada;  33,  Wurtemburg;  34,  China;  35,  Belgium;  36, 
Nassau;  37,  Switzerland;  38,  Mecklenburg  Schwerin;  39, 
Oldenburg;  40,  Bavaria;  41,  Saxony. 

In  asking  my  "thoughts  on  the  recent  treaty  of  peace" 
with  Mexico,  you  open  upon  me  a  wide  field,  and  I  cannot 
answer  you  without  considerable  detail ;  whatever  tediousness 
may  follow,  you  must  charge  to  your  own  indiscretion. 

Certainly  a  most  important  addition — perhaps  the  most  im 
portant  since  the  revolutionary  treaties — to  the  supreme  law  of 
the  United  States,  was  accomplished  by  that  instrument.  To 
conform  with  frankness  and  fidelity  to  its  arrangements  and 
stipulations,  and  at  the  same  time  to  reap  fully  its  advantages, 
are  objects  which  will  engage  the  reflections  of  our  citizens, 
and  which  justify,  if  they  do  not  imperatively  exact,  a  calm 
consideration  of  its  provisions  and  probable  results. 

Springing,  as  our  statutes  generally  do,  out  of  the  pre 
dispositions  and  anterior  discussions  of  the  people,  their  char 
acter  and  bearings  are  promptly  appreciated.  Not  so  with 
international  conventions.  These  involve  topics  of  exterior 
relations,  impose  new  and  unstudied  duties,  and  open  fresh 
fields  for  enterprise  and,  industry  ;  all  requiring  candid,  scru- 


5 

pulous,  and  often  laborious  investigation.  The  public  faith  of 
our  country — a  gem  of  incalculable  value — has  never  yet,  with 
good  cause,  been  questioned  ;  and  to  secure  its  unclouded  pre 
servation,  it  is  necessary  that  we  should  perfectly  understand 
and  fulfil,  as  well  in  the  spirit  as  in  the  letter,  our  positive 
national  obligations.  Nothing  can  be  of  more  binding  efficacy 
than  a  Treaty  of  Peace,  and  nothing  calls  for  greater  care  of 
analysis  arid  sterner  integrity  of  construction. 

It  may,  I  think,  be  correctly  said  that  the  circumstances 
which  affect  our  intercourse  with  the  one  sister  republic  of  this 
continent,  are  calculated  to  suggest  the  wisdom  of  more  than 
common  forbearance  and  caution  of  action.  The  temptations 
to  treat  her  as  an  enfeebled  inferior,  to  depreciate  her  civiliza 
tion,  to  encroach  upon  her  ill-guarded  rights,  and  to  apply  the 
treasures  which  she  so  flagrantly  mismanages — of  her  soil,  her 
climate  and  her  location — to  the  aims  of  our  higher  and  pro 
gressive  intelligence,  are  constantly  operating.  The  history  of 
the  world  is  full  of  proof  that  such  temptations  are  apt  to  sap 
and  overthrow  the  magnanimity  and  fame  of  a  nation,  and  too 
often  impel  her  into  courses  of  usurpation,  which  never  fail, 
ultimately,  to  re-act  fatally  upon  her  own  institutions  and 
safety.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  destinies  of  our  Union  are  in 
a  large  degree  to  be  influenced  by  the  proximity  and  our 
treatment  of  Mexico.  Let  us  be  vigilant — not  over  her,  for 
she  is  irremediably  powerless — but  over  ourselves,  as  a  people 
and  a  government,  that,  unseduced  by  the  consciousness  of 
irresistible  strength,  we  may  never  transcend  the  limits  of 
justice  and  honor. 

On  the  15th  of  April,  1847,  Mr.  Nicholas  P.  Trist,  then  the 
Chief  Clerk  in  the  Department  of  State,  at  Washington,  was 

duly  authorized  and  instructed  to  proceed,  as  a  Commissioner, 
1* 


to  the  United  Mexican  States,  to  the  head-quarters  of  our  army, 
and  to  act  "  as  a  confidential  agent,  fully  acquainted  with  the 
views  of  his  government,  and  clothed  with  full  power  to  con 
clude  a  Treaty  of  Peace." 

It  will  be  recollected  that,  at  this  date,  the  war  was  not  yet 
a  year  old — taking  as  its  first  actual  opening  the  surprise  upon 
Capt.  Thornton's  party  of  dragoons,  on  the  16th  of  April,  1846. 
The  appointment  of  Mr.  Trist  had,  notwithstanding,  been  pre 
ceded  by  a  series  of  battles,  from  Palo  Alto  to  the  eve  of  Cero 
Gordo,  by  which  the  vast  and  overpowering  ascendancy  of  the 
American  armies,  under  any  disproportion  of  numbers,  was  in- 
contestably  established.  His  mission,  though  impeded  by  mis 
apprehensions,  repelled  by  an  obstinate  enemy,  and  closed  by 
a  recall,  was,  nevertheless,  with  a  rare  vigor  of  will  and  as 
sumption  of  responsibility,  persevered  in,  until  the  capital  of 
our  enemy  being  occupied  by  our  forces,  the  instrument  now 
under  consideration  was,  in  its  original  form,  signed  by  its  re 
spective  negotiators,  on  the  2d  of  February,  1848,  at  the  city 
of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo. 

A  record  of  such  solemnity — so  momentous  in  its  immediate 
and  its  remote  consequences  to  two  nations,  was  never  fashion 
ed  in  a  manner  more  irregular  and  strange.  It  can  scarcely 
be  assumed  that  either  of  the  persons  by  whom  it  was  concocted, 
on  one  side  or  the  other,  had  legally  the  proper  representative 
capacity  to  act.  Mr.  Trist  certainly  had  been  divested  of  all 
public  function,  and  of  this  fact  his  Mexican  co-laborers  were 
as  perfectly  aware,  as  that  their  own  commissions  wanted  con 
stitutional  foundation.  The  case  became  an  individual  expe 
riment  of  spontaneous  diplomacy :  and,  of  course,  past  instruc 
tions  received  attention  only  so  far  as  they  did  not  impede  the 
progress  of  adjustment.  This  production  naturally  invoked 


attack,  criticism,  ridicule — it  was  despised  as  a  mere  piece  of 
paper;  and  was  alleged  to  begin  and  end  (in  reference  to  the 
recitals  of  powers)  with  plain  blunt  falsehood.  Notwithstand 
ing  all  this,  the  document  rapidly  found  its  way  to  the  American 
Executive ;  in  three  weeks  only  after  its  completion,  it  had 
traversed  some  thousands  of  miles,  and  was  submitted  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  for  ratification ;  and  on  the  lapse  of 
two  weeks  more,  it  was,  with  very  few  changes,  invested  with 
all  the  sanctions  of  national  adoption.  Subsequently  confirmed 
by  the  Mexican  authorities,  and  its  ratifications  exchanged  on 
the  30th  of  May,  1848,  it  has  ceased  to  be  "a  mere  piece  of 
paper"  and  no  longer  imports  an  untruth;  but  solemnly 
vouched  and  guarantied  by  the  joint  honor  and  faith  of  both 
countries,  it  is  now  and  forever,  henceforward,  "A  Treaty  of 
Peace,  Friendship,  Limits  and  Settlement  between  the  United 
States  of  America  and  the  Mexican  Republic." 

Before  proceeding  to  comment  upon  the  treaty  as  it  stands, 
it  may  be  useful  briefly  to  advert  to  those  portions  of  it  which 
failed  to  obtain  the  assent  of  our  Government.  Some  light, 
indeed,  will  be  shed,  by  this  course,  upon  our  future  inquiries, 
aiding  to  develop  more  precisely  the  purposes  of  the  contract 
ing  parties  with  the  hopes  and  fears  by  which  they  were  re 
spectively  animated. 

Two  entire  articles  of  the  instrument,  as  transmitted  from 
Mexico,  were  unhesitatingly  rejected  by  the  Senators.  The 
President,  in  his  message  communicating  it,  had  expressed  his 
decided  repugnance  to  both  of  them.  The  first  (which  was 
article  tenth,)  bore  a  very  equivocal  aspect,  and  found  no  war 
rant  in  any  instruction  from  our  Department  of  State.  It 
savored  strongly  of  private  speculating  interest,  intruding  itself, 
covertly,  if  not  corruptly,  into  the  national  arrangement.  Its  real 


8 

object  was  to  pledge  the  United  States  to  cause  to  be  recognized 
as  valid  in  the  subsequent  fulfilment  of  their  conditions  an  un 
defined  extent  of  grants  made  by  Mexico  of  lands  in  Texas, 
as  they  would  have  been  valid  had  Texas  never  achieved  her 
independence.  Such  a  proposition  was  inadmissible,  in  refer 
ence  alike  to  the  sovereignty  and  rights  of  Texas,  and  to  the 
consitutional  range  of  the  treaty-making  power.  It  could  not 
be  entertained  without  insulting  Texas,  by  affecting  to  inter 
meddle  with  her  titles  to  her  own  property.  Nor  could  it  be 
entertained  without  unsettling  the  terms  of  annexation  upon 
which  she  had  been  admitted  into  the  Union.  Texas  had  be 
come  a  member  of  our  confederacy  by  promptly  and  frankly 
embracing  the  first  and  second  sections  of  the  joint  resolution 
passed  by  Congress  on  the  1st  of  March,  1845 :  and  in  these 
it  was  expressly  stipulated  that  she  should  "  retain  all  the  pub 
lic  funds,  debts,  taxes,  and  dues  of  every  kind  which  may  be 
long  to,  or  be  due  and  owing  said  republic ;  and  all  the  vacant 
and  unappropriated  lands  lying  within  her  limits."  Nothing 
but  a  scheme  originating  with  the  holders  of  bad  titles,  in  or 
der  to  enhance  the  value  of  their  grants,  can  well  account  for 
the  introduction  of  this  instantly  repudiated  article.  Its  real 
bearing  must  have  eluded  the  sagacity  of  our  negotiator. 

The  other  entire  rejection  was  of  "an  additional  and  secret 
article"  The  twenty-third  article  of  the  treaty  itself  provided 
that  an  exchange  of  ratifications  should  take  place  in  four 
months  from  the  date  of  the  signatures — this  secret  article,  con 
templating  the  peculiar  circumstances  in  which  the  Mexican 
Republic  was  placed,  extended  the  four  to  eight  months. 

In  all  our  intercourse  with  the  Government  of  Mexico,  that 
of  which  we  have  had  most  reason  to  complain  is,  an  ha 
bitual  resort  to  procrastination  and  duplicity.  To  gain  time, 


and  to  seize  the  possible  advantages  of  delay,  seem  perpetual 
aims  with  its  diplomacy.  It  has  no  sincerity  and  no  fixedness. 
A  compound  of  Spanish  gravity  and  Indian  wiliness,  it  exhibits 
an  equal  distrust  of  others  and  of  itself.  To  act  justly  for  the 
sake  of  justice  ;  to  do  what  is  right,  because  it  is  right ;  to  re 
deem  promises  with  honorable  exactness ;  and  to  construct 
peace  and  prosperity  upon  foundations  of  good  faith  ;  these 
are  not  principles  or  notions  to  which  Mexican  intelligence 
and  experience  have  yet  elevated  their  foreign  policy.  If  they 
have  earned  the  epithet  of  barbarous,  it  is  by  no  trait  of  charac 
ter  more  justly  than  the  one  thus  described. 

The  secret  article  only  added  to  a  series,  exhibited  during 
the  last  ten  years,  and  especially  in  the  progress  of  the  war,  ^ 
further  illustration  of  this  spirit  of  craft  and  instability.  Four 
months  were  amply  sufficient  for  perfecting  the  peace,  if  its 
inclination  existed.  Why  then  protract  them  to  eight  ?  Was 
it  to  prolong  the  opportunity  for  realizing  some  lingering  hopes 
of  European  intervention  ?  Was  it  to  await  the  full  develop 
ment  of  an  anticipated  dissension  among  ourselves,  respecting 
the  continuance  of  the  war,  and  the  extension  of  our  territories  ? 
Was  it  to  retard  the  withdrawal  of  our  forces  to  the  sickly 
season  ?  Was  it  to  attempt  another  organization  of  their  scat 
tered  army,  like  that  effected  during  the  armistice  ?  Was  it, 
in  fine,  to  keep  the  chapter  of  accidents  open,  with  a  design, 
on  any  change  of  fortune,  to  find  pretexts  for  withholding,  ul 
timately,  a  ratification  ?  Whatever  prompted  the  dilatory  ex 
pedient,  it  failed. 

On  the  part  of  the  United  States,  there  was  every  reason  for 
insisting  that  the  subject  should  be  brought  to  a  definite  close 
at  the  earliest  practicable  day.  They  had  incurred  a  heavy 
expenditure  in  effecting  their  conquest:  their  treasury  was 


10 

not  perceptibly  relieved  by  the  system  of  military  contribution ; 
and  to  keep  their  victorious  armies  in  the  heart  of  Mexico, 
waiting,  under  all  the  hazards  of  idleness  and  demoralization, 
merely  to  gratify  an  affected  convenience  of  their  enemy,  was 
rather  more  than  could  reasonably  be  expected  from  either 
their  generosity  or  their  solicitude  for  peace.  The  American 
people  had  very  generally  come  to  the  determination  that  the 
struggle  should  cease,  and  cease  at  once ;  whether  by  a  pacifi 
cation,  or  a  permanent  occupation,  they  left  to  the  choice  of 
the  subdued.  '  . 

Dissected  by  the  Senate,  other  parts  of  the  original  treaty 
shared  the  fate  of  its  tenth  and  secret  articles. 

1.  An  elaborate  and  seemingly  anxious  provision  was  de 
signed,  to  obtain  from  the  Government  of  the  United  States  a 
special  guaranty  of  all  ecclesiastic  and  religious  corporations 
or  communities,  in  the  ceded  territories  of  New  Mexico  and 
California,  as  well  in  the  discharge  of  the  offices  of  their 
ministry  as  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  their  temples,  houses  and 
edifices  dedicated  to  the  Roman  Catholic  worship,  and  in  all 
property  destined  to  its  support,  or  to  that  of  schools,  hospitals 
and  other  foundations  for  charitable  or  beneficent  purposes ; 
and,  also,  a  guaranty  that  the  relations  and  communications 
between  the  Catholics  in  those  territories  and  their  respective 
ecclesiastical  authorities,  should  be  free  from  all  hindrance, 
even  though  such  authorities  should  reside  within  the  limits  of 
the  Mexican  Republic — a  freedom  to  continue  so  long  as  a  new 
demarcation  of  ecclesiastical  districts  should  not  have  been 
made,  conformably  to  the  laws  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church. 

The  hierarchy  in  Mexico,  a  separate  and  wealthy  power  in 
the  State,  upon  seeing  that  it  had  become  necessary  to  save  the 
nationality  of  their  country,  by  relinquishing,  in  the  form  of  a 


11 

sale,  all  claims  to  the  provinces  already  occupied  as  conquered, 
would  naturally  strive,  by  conditions,  to  protect  such  of  their 
affiliated  brethren  as  remained  there  in  the  uninterrupted  ex 
ercise  of  a  preferred  faith  and  spiritual  co-operation.  This 
war,  like  all  others,  had  been  accompanied  by  exasperating 
representations  from  each  side,  as  to  the  objects  and  conduct  of 
the  adversary.  In  order  to  stir  up  the  deepest  feelings  of  hostility 
to  us,  and  at  the  same  time  to  induce  the  church  to  volunteer 
her  riches  and  her  prayers  to  repel  the  invaders,  the  American 
people  were  charged  with  having  entered  upon  a  crusade 
against  the  Catholicism  of  Mexico,  and  with  aiming  to  discredit 
and  disperse  its  priesthood,  as  well  as  to  plunder  and  raze  the 
temples  dedicated  to  its  worship.  Nothing  could  be  more 
absolutely  false,  and  yet  nothing,  for  a  season,  seemed  so 
likely  to  debase  the  contest  with  the  fury  of  intolerance, 
assassination  and  cruelty.  The  highly  discreet  and  honorable 
deportment,  in  this  respect,  which  marked  the  progress  of  our 
forces,  as  well  officers  as  men,  ought  to  have  dispelled  all 
apprehension  long  before  the  negotiation  for  a  treaty  began. 

I  will  here  take  occasion  to  assert  that  no  armies  ever  over 
ran  an  enemy's  country  with  so  strict  and  uniform  attention 
to  the  rules  of  civilized  warfare,  as  did  ours,  in  all  their  great 
campaigns  under  Taylor,  Scott,  Kearney,  Wool,  or  Donophan. 
History  will  delineate  this  as  their  noble  characteristic,  in  con 
trast  with  the  practices  of  European  belligerents.  No  licen 
tious  and  brutal  soldiery  went  riot  under  the  American  flag — 
no  towns  or  villages  were  sacked — no  cities  were  plundered  or 
fired — no  unnecessary  carnage  stained  the  fiercest  fight — no 
wanton  oppression  followed  upon  victory — no  spoils  were 
hoarded — no  galleries  of  art  were  rifled — no  monuments  were 
mutilated  or  removed — no  debts  left  unpaid.  Narratives  like 


12 

those  which  have  recorded  the  military  excesses  of  France, 
England  and  Russia,  in  Egypt,  or  Italy  or  Spain,  or  Circassia, 
or  Poland,  or  Algeria,  can  never  be  written  to  degrade  our  re 
publican  combatants.  Still,  after  the  groundless  alarm  had 
once  been  excited,  it  could  hardly  surprise  us,  that  a  Roman 
Catholic  clergy  should  suggest  some  protective  stipulations 
like  this,  on  behalf  of  those  from  whom  they  were  about  to 
separate  politically  forever.  It  can  more  fairly  be  ascribed  to 
aifectionate  solicitude  than  to  bigotted  cunning.  The  plain 
truth  is,  that  the  most  enlightened  Mexicans  fail  to  compre 
hend  or  appreciate  the  theory  and  action  of  our  system  as  re 
gards  the  freedom  of  divine  worship — and  it  was  exactly  this 
which  they  do  not  understand,  which  renders  it  impossible  for 
our  Government  to  subscribe  to  a  proposed  contract  for  guard 
ing  ecclesiastical  immunities  or  relations.  Our  Government 
might,  perhaps,  innocently  guaranty,  as  has  been  heretofore 
done,  in  treaties  with  at  least  sixteen  different  countries,  the 
most  perfect  security  and  liberty  of  conscience,  and  entire  ex 
emption  from  disturbance  or  molestation  on  account  of  religion, 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  provinces.  Mr.  Joel  Barlow, 
in  the  treaty  he  effected  with  the  Bey  of  Tripoli,  diplomati 
cally  asserted  that  "  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
of  America  is  not  founded  on  the  Christian  Religion"  Mr. 
Tobias  Lear,  in  a  subsequent  treaty  with  the  same  power,  says, 
more  gently,  that  "  the  Government  of  the  United  States  of 
America  has,  in  itself,  no  character  of  enmity  against  the 
laws,  religion,  or  tranquillity  of  Mussulmans  ;"  and  Mr.  Wm. 
Shaler,  in  a  still  later  one  with  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  with  greater 
comprehensiveness,  affirms,  that  "the  Government  of  the  United 
States  has,  in  itself,  no  character  of  enmity  against  the  laws, 
religion,  or  tranquillity  of  any  nation"  There  is  incontestable 


13 

truth  in  each  and  all  of  these  representations,  however  widely 
construed.  The  constitutional  injunction,  that "  Congress  shall 
make  no  law  respecting  an  establishment  of  religion"  can 
not  be  too  scrupulously  complied  with.  Indeed,  had  not  ex 
perience  taught  us  that  it  is  impossible,  with  any  labor  of  ex 
planation,  to  infuse  into  foreign  governments  an  exact  sense  of 
the  spirit  and  complexity  of  our  institutions,  I  should  consider 
it  more  consistent  and  more  safe,  sternly  to  refrain  from  even 
mentioning  in  national  pacts  a  subject  so  expressly  and  con 
fessedly  out  of  the  reach  of  federal  legislation  or  control.  Its 
introduction  is  certainly  somewhat  disingenuous,  and,  by  cre 
ating  erroneous  impressions  as  to  the  national  jurisdiction, 
might,  under  circumstances,  bring  our  public  faith  into  question. 
With  us,  religious  and  spiritual  allegiance  is,  as  such,  a  matter 
essentially  extra-political — as  wholly  intangible  by  legislation 
or  diplomacy,  as  private  thought. 

2.  The  paragraph  on  which  I  have  just  commented,  having 
been  struck  from  the  original  document,  the  one  that  pre 
ceded  it  was  winnowed  and  changed,  until  it  became  the  short 
but  ample  Article  IX,  of  the  Treaty,  as  ratified. 

It  had  provided  that  the  people  of  California  and  New  Mex 
ico  should,  in  the  first  place,  be  incorporated  into  the  Union, 
and  admitted  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights  of  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  as  soon  as  possible,  according  to  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  Federal  Constitution :  and  in  the  second  place, 
that  they  should,  in  the  meantime,  enjoy  the  civil  rights  now 
vested  in  them  by  Mexican  laws,  and  that  their  political  rights 
should  be  equal  to  those  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  other  terri 
tories  ;  at  least  not  inferior  to  those  of  the  inhabitants  of  Loui 
siana  and  Florida,  when  acquried  from  France  and  Spain. 

The  adding  of  another  member  to  the  American  Confederacy, 
2 


14 

pregnant  as  that  proceeding  is  with  vast  consequences  to  those 
already  comprising  it,  is  a  matter  of  congressional  discretion. 
It  may  or  it  may  not  be  done,  as  a  majority  should  happen  to 
esteem  it  wise  and  expedient,  or  the  reverse.  No  amount  of 
population,  and  no  period  of  probation  are  prescribed  as  neces 
sary  preliminaries.  The  language  of  the  Constitution  is 
simply — "New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into 
this  Union."  A  State  can  be  composed  of  five  thousand,  or 
five  hundred  thousand;  of  a  foreign,  superstitious,  indolent, 
and  many  colored  people,  or  of  known,  enlightened,  laborious, 
and  pale-hued  Saxons ;  of  men  to  whom  our  laws  and  usages 
are  sudden  novelties ;  or  of  men  whose  habits  of  thought  and 
action  have  been  moulded  beneath  their  administration.  The 
discretion  of  Congress  must  be  governed  by  a  full  considera 
tion  of  these  various  circumstances ;  and  the  hour  of  admis 
sion  expedited,  or  retarded,  as  may  seem  best  to  that  body. 
The  form  of  this  stipulation  for  incorporation  into  our  Union, 
was  obviously  found  in  the  treaty  purchases  of  Louisiana  and 
Florida :  and  had  there  not  been  supposed  to  exist  in  Califor 
nia  and  New  Mexico  a  mass  of  population,  exercising  all  the 
rights  of  citizenship,  and  yet  greatly  inferior  to  any  received 
with  those  prior  cessions,  perhaps  that  form,  having  been  tested 
by  time,  would  have  escaped  criticism  and  change.  An  en 
gagement,  however,  to  welcome  into  this  confederacy,  as  equal 
political  brethren,  and  as  soon  as  possible,  hordes  of  ignorant, 
degraded,  tawny,  black,  brown,  and  semi-barbarous  beings, 
was  too  repulsive  to  be  directly  embraced :  and  it  was  avoided 
by  substituting  for  the  words  of  hot  haste,  the  cool  phrase,  "at 
the  proper  time,  (to  be  judged  of  by  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.") 
To  be  vainglorious  seems  a  common  propensity  of  nations. 


15 

• 

The  Egyptians,  Jews,  Greeks,  Spaniards,  English,  French, 
Chinese,  aye  and  Turks,  have,  in  succession,  flattered  them 
selves  with  the  belief  that  they  held  the  palm  of  pre-eminent 
civilization,  and  have  arrogantly  applied  the  term  "Barba 
rians"  to  others.  The  manner  in  which  we  are  prone  to 
speak  of  our  Mexican  neighbors,  indicates  no  unwillingness 
to  follow  this  bad  example.  Our  language  of  contempt  is 
wholesale  and  unmeasured.  In  all  things  in  which  they 
differ  from  us,  we  set  them  down  as  deficient,  rude,  or  vicious. 
They,  at  least,  are  our  "  Barbarians"— lower,  perhaps,  in  the 
scale  of  humanity  than  some  tribes  of  western  Indians,  though 
hardly  as  low  as  the  creeping  and  cadaverous  "  root-diggers." 
I  am  not  disposed  to  controvert  what  is  so  palpably  unjust,  un 
charitable,  undiscriminating  and  impolitic.  But  this  I  will 
say :  that  if  there  be,  and  of  that  I  entertain  no  doubt,  an 
elevating  and  improving  principle  in  our  admirable  structure 
of  government,  these  miserable  Mexicans,  so  long  the  vic 
tims  of  all  sorts  of  misrule,  are  the  very  objects  whom  we 
should  hasten  to  embrace  within  the  circle  of  its  regenerating 
influence.  I  suppose  we  cannot,  in  the  high  spheres  of  politi 
cal  action,  invoke,  even  as  illustrations  of  the  true  philosophy 
of  life,  the  individual  examples  of  a  Howard  among  the  suffer 
ing,  or  a  Dix  among  the  insane — governments  shrink  from 
the  ridicule  of  propagandism  or  knight-errantry — but  surely 
our  sublimated  excellence  need  fear  no  contamination  with 
this  other  race  of  God's  creatures,  and  may  fairly  hope  to  find 
them,  as  incoming  partners,  speedily  imitating  the  successful 
habits  of  the  old  firm. 

3.  The  instrument  as  sent  from  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo,  re 
served  to  the  Mexican  Government  the  right  to  determine, 
when  her  ratification  was  given,  in  which  of  the  two  described 


16 

• 

modes  the  United  States  should  pay  the  prices  of  the  ceded 
provinces,  to  wit,  fifteen  millions  of  dollars. 

Both  modes  required  a  payment  of  three  millions  of  dollars, 
immediately  after  the  treaty  should  have  been  duly  ratified  by 
the  government  of  the  Mexican  Republic,  at  the  city  of  Mex 
ico,  and  in  the  gold  or  silver  coin  of  Mexico.  For  the  remain 
ing  twelve  millions  of  dollars,  the  first  mode  proposed  the 
creation  of  a  United  States  stock,  bearing  an  annual  interest  of 
six  per  cent.,  payable  at  Washington,  redeemable  at  any  time 
after  the  expiration  of  two  years ;  of  which  stock  transferable 
certificates,  in  such  sums  respectively  as  the  Mexican  Govern 
ment  might  specify,  were  to  be  forthwith  delivered  to  that  Go 
vernment:  and  the  second  mode  proposed  the  payment  at 
Mexico,  and  in  Mexican  coin,  in  four  annual  instalments,  of 
three  millions  each,  with  interest  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent. — 
the  first  instalment  and  its  interest  to  be  paid  at  the  expiration 
of  one  year  from  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  by  Mexico.  The 
reservation  of  the  liberty  of  choice  between  these  modes  of 
payment,  and  all  that  related  to  the  first  mode,  were  stricken 
out  of  the  treaty  by  the  Senate. 

To  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  it  was  a  matter  of 
indifference  which  of  these  plans  prevailed :  but  to  the  security 
of  the  objects  which  our  Government  had  in  view,  one  of  them 
afforded,  indirectly,  greater  aid  than  the  other. 

The  Mexican  administration  with  whom  Mr.  Trist  negoti 
ated,  was  surrounded  by  difficulties,  and  its  duration  exceed 
ingly  doubtful.  No  confidence  prevailed  that  it  could  perse 
vere  in  the  policy  of  peace,  opposed  by  a  numerous  and 
patriotic  party,  cherishing  war  as  the  only  means  of  over 
throwing  established  practices  of  misgovernment,  and  of  ulti 
mately  merging  their  nationality  into  ours.  Its  great  want 


17 

was  money :  for  without  that,  how  invigorate  adherents,  or 
retain  dependents  ?  Its  credit  and  means  were  paralyzed,  ex 
hausted,  or  in  the  grasp  of  the  conqueror.  The  prompt  receipt 
of  these  three  millions  from  the  United  States  would  enable  it 
perhaps,  on  the  first  shock  of  peace,  if  I  may  so  express  myself, 
to  stand  firm,  keep  order,  and  outlive  the  crisis :  but  such  a 
sum  could  scarcely  entrench  it  safely  and  durably  against  the 
threatened  assaults  of  its  adversaries,  or  ward  off  an  almost 
immediate  recurrence  of  the  contest.  Twelve  additional  mil 
lions,  paid  in  a  form  convertible  into  cash,  and  at  once  avail 
able,  might  suffice  for  every  object :  and  they  were  naturally, 
therefore,  sought  by  Pen  a  y  Pena. 

With  us,  the  course  of  prudent  expediency  was  different. 
Whatever,  on  the  close  of  the  war,  might  be  the  issue  of  the 
struggle  between  rival  factions  in  the  Mexican  Republic, 
whether  the  management  of  her  affairs  passed  into  new  and 
less  amicably  disposed  hands  or  not,  we  had  it  in  our  power 
so  to  distribute  and  withhold  our  payments,  as  to  make  them 
fulfil  the  purpose  of  an  impressive  recognizance  to  be  of  good 
behavior  during  at  least  five  years.  That  government^  how 
much  soever  its  chiefs  might  change,  could  not  be  insensible 
to  the  danger  of  losing,  by  any  rupture  of  the  treaty,  the  in 
stalments  remaining  due.  And  as  this  consideration  must 
affect  the  central  policy,  time  would  be  gained  to  assuage  the 
wounded  sensibility  and  vindictiveness  of  the  people,  by  the 
gradual  influences  of  revived  trade  and  intercourse.  No  doubt, 
as  we  were  able,  so  we  should  be  perfectly  justified  to  retain 
by  force,  in  despite  of  all  future  claim  and  aggression,  the 
territories  in  part  paid  for  by  the  three  millions ;  but  it  was  de 
sirable  to  sheathe  the  sword,  with  a  reasonable  confidence  that 

it  need  not  again  be  drawn.     We  wished,  at  all  events,  to  aug- 

2* 


18 

ment  the  probability  that  when  we  disbanded  our  military 
levies,  we  should  not  be  obliged  soon  and  suddenly  to  reorgan 
ize  others  and  repeat  our  conquests. 

As  I  have  drawn  too  heavily  upon  your  patience  already, 
respecting  the  rejected  portions  of  the  original  treaty,  I  abstain 
from  noticing  two  or  three  other  points  of  no  great  importance, 
and  will  now  proceed  to  consider  the  instrument  as  it  actually 
binds  both  countries. 

My  remarks  will,  perhaps,  assume  greater  perspicuity  if  ar 
ranged  under  the  two  titles  by  which  they  are  particularly 
suggested,  such  as  1,  PEACE,  and  2,  BOUNDARY  ;  and  as  to 
both,  they  shall  be  as  brief  and  comprehensive  as  I  can  make 
them. 

I.  PEACE. 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine  in  what  precise  light  posterity 
will  regard  this  peace — whether  as  a  purchased  or  a  conquered 
peace.  Certainly  it  could  never  have  been  effected,  had  we 
not,  by  a  succession  of  victories  at  all  quarters,  annihilated  the 
military  power  of  Mexico — making  her  statesmen  almost  de 
spair  of  rescuing  from  extinction  the  nationality  of  their 
country.  But  with  equal  certainty,  a  dogged  and  infatuated 
obstinacy,  combining  with  the  ulterior  policy  of  an  annexation 
party,  would  have  drawn  us  into  the  necessity  of  systematic 
and  permanent  subjugation,  had  we  been  unable  or  unwilling 
to  replenish  the  empty  treasury  of  Anaya  with  the  price  of  the 
ceded  Territories. 

Nor  is  it,  as  respects  the  point  of  national  character,  of  any 
real  importance  towards  which  aspect  of  the  matter  the  judg 
ment  of  the  world  ultimately  may  incline.  The  superiority 
of  our  arms  was  unquestionable ;  and  if  we  did  not,  as  was 
emphatically  promised,  conquer  the  peace,  we  certainly  con- 


19 

quered  our  enemy  whenever  and  wherever  confronted.  The 
country,  the  whole  country,  its  cities,  its  seaports,  its  popula 
tion,  resources  and  wealth,  were  at  our  mercy.  If  we  made  a 
purchase,  it  was  clearly  not  in  order  to  deprecate  any  possible 
reverse,  but  to  obtain  a  title  to  our  territorial  acquisitions,  by 
express  contract,  (as  did  William  Penn,)  in  preference  to  the 
one  by  belligerent  capture.  Such  a  muniment  of  property  is 
in  better  harmony  than  that  of  forcible  seizure,  with  the  spirit, 
reasoning  and  professions  of  our  republican  system.  Besides, 
the  generous  sentiment  of  the  American  people  recoiled  from 
the  arrogant  attitude  of  extorting  from  prostrated  foes,  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet,  what  they  could  be  induced,  by  persua 
sive  representations  and  a  fair  equivalent,  voluntarily  to  surren 
der.  Peace  was  in  itself  a  coveted  blessing,  but  it  could  neither 
be  durable  nor  welcome  without  indemnity  ;  and  that  indem 
nity  it  was  out  of  the  power  of  Mexico  even  plausibly  to 
promise,  much  less  to  pay,  except  by  abating  the  price  of  lands, 
which,  in  her  feeble  and  receding  condition,  were  worthless, 
but,  in  our  strong  and  advancing  one,  were  of  immense  pro 
spective  value.  We  had  found  no  reparation  for  countless 
aggressions,  in  shedding  torrents  of  Mexican  blood,  in  sacri 
ficing  many  thousands  of  our  own  brave  citizens,  or  spending 
a  vast  amount  of  treasure.  If  redress  were  essential,  and 
assuredly  it  could  not  be  waived  without  making  a  mockery  of 
public  interests  and  trusts,  the  wit  of  man  could  devise  no 
other  means  of  obtaining  it,  equally  gentle,  equally  convenient, 
and  equally  honorable. 

The  Peace,  whether  conquered  or  purchased,  must  be  re 
garded  as  an  illustration  of  American  magnanimity.  What 
other  government,  under  the  same  circumstances,  would  have 
made  it  ?  What  other  people  would  have  halted  in  the  hour 


20 

of  consummate  triumph,  and,  amid  the  temptations  of  a  rich 
and  splendid  Capital,  a  beautiful  and  abundant  valley,  a  luxu 
rious  climate,  the  vegetation  and  tints  of  perpetual  summer — 
have  instantly  shut  their  hearts  against  ambitious  aspirations, 
and  stretched  forth  their  hands  to  renew  the  relations  of  amity? 
I  recollect  no  similar  instance  in  the  whole  current  of  history, 
ancient  or  modern.  Such  a  course  always  has  been,  and  al 
ways  will  be,  contemptuously  sneered  at  by  monarchies :  and 
past  republics,  even  the  generous  one  of  Rome,  have  left  no 
record  of  an  example  which  we  might  be  supposed  to  have 
copied.  Traceable  equally  to  the  lofty  and  temperate  character 
of  our  citizens,  and  to  the  beneficent  character  of  our  institu 
tions,  it  is  peculiarly  and  wholly  an  American  act.  If  the 
peace  be  questionable,  as  showing  an  absence  of  forecasting 
energy — of  that  statesmanship  which  seizes  Time  by  the  fore 
lock,  and  forces  him  to  reap  at  once  the  harvest  of  half  a  cen 
tury — it  at  least  will  remain  a  monument  of  self-denying 
virtue. 

There  is,  undoubtedly,  an  attraction  in  the  word — "  PEACE  !" 
and  to  that  we  have  often  heretofore  yielded  ;  on  some  occasions, 
with  more  than  judicious  readiness.  At  Ghent,  in  1815,  it  was 
powerful  enough  to  induce  a  seemingly  entire  oblivion  of  the 
great  cause  of  seamen's  rights,  which  less  than  three  years  be 
fore  had  provoked  the  declaration  of  war  against  Great  Britain. 
In  1842  it  allured  us  into  a  surrender  of  territory  and  a  silence 
on  pending  reclamations,  rather  than  permit  Lord  Ashburton 
to  return  to  his  Court  unsuccessful  and  angry.  And,  fasci 
nated  by  its  seductive  charms  in  1846,  we  forgot,  like  faithless 
lovers,  our  solemn  vows  and  protestations  to  Northern  Oregon. 
We  may  possibly  discover  it  to  be  wise  and  prudent  sometimes 
to  resist,  as  did  President  Jackson,  respecting  the  French  In- 


21 

demnity,  in  1835,  this  Circean  spell :  and  I  must  confess,  that 
the  peace  with  Mexico  would  be  more  satisfactory  to  a  reflect 
ing  judgment,  were  the  prospects  of  domestic  government  and 
of  foreign  intrusion  in  that  country  less  unpromising  than  they 
actually  are.  Shall  we  admit  no  reproaches  and  no  regrets,  if 
she  sink,  the  victim  of  savage  anarchy,  or  more  savage  military 
despotism  ?  Should  the  scion  of  some  stump  of  royalty,  as  a 
ward  of  European  policy  and  power,  bent  upon  inoculating  this 
continent  with  their  degrading  and  pernicious  system,  be  sent 
and  accepted  to  her  Chief  Magistracy,  might  not  a  tardy  and 
vain  repentance  follow,  as 

Earth  felt  the  wound — and  Nature  from  her  seat, 
Sighing  through  all  her  works,  gave  signs  of  wo, 
That  all  was  lost ! 

No  calamity,  no  sacrifice,  no  expenditure,  no  war,  pestilence 
and  famine  could  entail  upon  us  and  our  posterity  a  hundredth 
part  of  the  evil  and  inevitable  consequences  which  must  flow 
from  fastening  a  kingly  throne,  by  means  of  holy  alliances,  in 
American  soil.  The  struggle  between  the  fundamental  and 
antagonistic  principles  of  human  association  would  at  once  be 
transferred  from  the  eastern  hemisphere,  where,  for  ages,  and 
over  myriads,  it  has  rioted  in  blood,  pauperism,  oppression, 
bigotry  and  ignorance.  It  would  have  been  better  to  expunge 
the  name  of  Mexico  from  the  map  forever.  Her  people  have 
an  indisputable  right  to  choose  their  own  form  of  government, 
regardless  of  advice,  expostulation,  or  example ;  and  if  misled 
by  corrupted  chiefs,  or  by  servile  inclinations,  they  once  stoop 
their  backs  to  receive  a  regal  rider,  we  may  never  cease  to  de 
plore,  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  on  their  account,  as  well  as  our 
own,  the  fatal  magnanimity  of  this  peace. 

I  have  remarked,  though  without  surprise,  how  few  and 


22 

spiritless  were  the  manifestations  of  rejoicing  which  greeted 
the  proclamation  announcing  the  war  to  be  over.  Here  and 
there  a  faint  illumination  shone  upon  a  quiet  city  crowd.  Offi 
cial  guns,  within  their  spheres  of  discipline,  were  ceremoni 
ously  and  punctually  discharged.  A  formulary  of  thanksgiv 
ing  passed  languidly  from  pulpit  to  pulpit.  And  even  the  mer 
cury  of  newspapers  scarcely  seemed  to  rise  in  their  columns. 
This  singular  indifference  to  a  great  event  finds  much  expla 
nation  in  three  facts — the  war  had  very  slightly  disturbed  the 
business  of  our  country,  for  the  attempt  to  infest  the  seas 
proved  entirely  abortive ;  no  anxiety  as  to  invasion  or  inroad 
had  anywhere  been  created;  and  our  relations  with  Mexico 
involved  the  feelings  and  interests  of  comparatively  a  small 
class  of  our  citizens.  How  differently  was  welcomed  the  peace 
with  England !  and  yet  that  peace  did  not  crown  as  glorious  a 
contest,  was  not  prescribed  in  the  enemy's  Capital,  and  did  not 
consummate  a  single  aim  of  national  policy !  Why  is  this  ? 
Alas  !  I  forbear  to  speak  of  the  power  exerted  over  Americans 
by  the  oligarchy,  literature,  trade,  stocks,  and  even  fashions  of 
our  Anglo-Saxon  rivals  and  revilers.  It  disables  us  from  ap 
preciating  anything  so  highly  as  fraternity  with  England,  any 
thing  so  afflicting  as  quarrel  with  her.  We  can  scarcely  yet 
claim  to  have  achieved  our  moral  independence  of  the  "mother 
country.33 

II.  BOUNDARY. 

The  boundary  of  the  treaty  is,  throughout,  an  imaginary 
line,  and,  as  such,'  is  certainly  not  the  best  that  could  be 
established  between  the  nations.  Starting  in  the  waters  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  at  a  point  three  leagues  east  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Bravo  del  Norte,  it  runs  west  and  northwest,  into  and  up 
the  centre  of  the  main  channel  of  that  river,  until  it  strikes  the 


23 

southern  boundary  of  New  Mexico ;  then  turns  due  west  along 
that  southern  boundary,  and  continues  identical  with  it,  over  the 
Sierra  Mimbres,  to  its  extreme  western  point,  when  it  encoun 
ters  and  adheres  to  the  western  boundary  of  New  Mexico,  run 
ning  north  for  about  one  degree  and  a  half,  within  forty 
minutes  of  the  34th  degree  of  north  latitude,  where  it  meets 
the  first  branch  of  the  river  Gila,  when  it  turns  to  the  centre 
of  that  stream,  follows  it  down,  inclining  south  west  wardly,  to 
its  confluence  with  the  Colorado,  crosses,  in  a  straight  line,  the 
Colorado,  and  pursues  its  way,  direct  west,  to  a  point  on  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  one  league  south  of  the  city  of  San  Diego,  and 
about  latitude  32  degrees  40  minutes.  By  this  delineation,  it 
will  be  perceived  that  there  is  expressly  incorporated  into  the 
territorial  area  of  the  United  States  all  the  disputed  portions  of 
Texas,  all  new  Mexico,  and  all,  save  only  the  southwestern 
corner,  of  Upper  California.  Bancroft  LI 

The  purposes  of  peaceful  separation  are  most  surely  and 
conveniently  attained  by  mountainous  barriers.  Terminus  is 
a  god  of  forbearance  and  repose.  He  loves  a  lofty  and  lonely 
residence,  one  from  which  he  can  enjoy  a  wide  horizon,  and 
be  sure  of  undisturbed  tranquillity.  He  is  unhappy  amid  the 
noisy  throngs  that  bustle  in  plains  or  in  valleys — and  he  is 
kept  in  feverish  solicitude  by  the  facility  with  which,  if  his 
home  be  built  on  water,  he  can  be  invaded  on  every  side.  The 
world's  experience  is  full  of  this  moral.  The  Alps,  the  Pyren- 
nees,  the  Balken,  and  the  Andes  may  be  scaled,  it  is  true,  by 
eagles,  in  unfrequent  flights ;  but  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  and 
the  Vistula  are  skimmed  unceasingly,  to  and  fro,  by  lawless 
skiffs,  freighted  with  smugglers  or  brigands.  The  case  of  the 
Caroline,  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  is  a  memorable  and  painful 
illustration  in  our  own  story. 


24 

This  boundary  stretches  through  a  vast  length  of  unre 
claimed  wilderness,  tenanted  chiefly  by  tribes  of  fierce  and 
roaming  Indians.  Henceforward  we  must  control  the  savages 
North  of  it,  and  prevent  their  predatory  incursions  upon  Mexi 
co.  The  obligation  to  do  so  has  been  voluntarily  assumed, 
and,  at  any  cost,  must  be  fulfilled.  And  yet  a  smooth,  ideal 
water-mark  offers  no  let  to  the  steed  of  a  Camanche,  an  Apache, 
or  a  Navahoe.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  the  ease  with  which 
such  a  limit  is  overleaped  acts  as  a  temptation  to  marauding 
parties  to  go  into  the  foreign  jurisdiction  for  their  booty. 

The  same  precautions,  it  is  true,  which  we  shall  have  to  take 
in  order  to  protect  our  possessions  from  invasion  by  Mexicans, 
may  be  available  as  restraints  upon  our  own  Indians.  A  con 
tinuous  and  communicating  series  of  fortified  posts  will 
perform  the  double  duty.  The  standing  annual  expense 
cannot,  however,  fail  to  be  great,  and  clearly  must  be  much 
greater  than  it  would  have  been  were  the  boundary  better 
chosen.  Had  its  track  been  upon  the  summits  of  the  Sierra 
Madre,  nature  would  have  furnished  the  two  countries  a 
guaranty  almost  superseding  the  necessity  of  military  supervi 
sion.  Indeed,  I  have  thought  this  last  mentioned  line  to  be 
the  one  on  which  both  Republics,  in  a  spirit  neither  of  grasping 
encroachment  nor  of  timid  surrender,  but  of  wise  forecast, 
should  have  agreed,  as  the  obvious  topographical  bulwark  of 
their  mutual  peace,  friendship,  and  separate  political  and  social 
rights.  The  hair-streak  in  the  middle  of  the  Bravo  and  the 
Gila  may  snap  asunder  at  every  swell  of  population  or  of 
passion,  but  the  rugged  chain  of  inaccessible  heights  would 
withstand  every  thing  of  this  ,,sort  for  many  centuries,  if  not 
forever. 

By  this  adjustment  of  boundary,  the  superficial  extent  of 


25 

our  accession  of  territory  is  large,  and  its  value,  when  fully 
explored,  may  be  found  to  exceed  its  price  a  hundred-fold. 
Without  including  the  contested  soil  of  Texas,  (which  we  are 
bound  to  regard  as  made  incontestable  by  her  own  assertion  of 
independence,)  the  treaty  assigns  to  the  United  States  more 
than  five  hundred  and  twenty-six  thousand  square  miles  of 
new  land,  or  something  short  of  three  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
millions  of  acres — that  is  to  say,  a  surface  more  than  four 
times  the  size  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  put  together, 
and  considerably  exceeding  the  joint  areas  of  France,  Spain, 
England,  Portugal  and  Holland.  Our  country,  by  this  an 
nexation,  becomes  nearly  as  extensive  as  entire  Europe. 

Of  the  actual  worth  of  these  immense  regions,  it  is  not  easy 
and  scarcely  useful  to  venture  an  estimate,  notwithstanding 
the  floods  of  light  shed  upon  them  by  explorers  and  travellers 
within  the  last  five  or  six  years.  No  one  can  reasonably  doubt 
that  they  are  fitted  to  become  the  seats  of  civilization,  intelli 
gence  and  freedom— of  busy,  agricultural,  trading  and  happy 
communities.  We  may  claim,  without  much  presumption, 
for  ourselves  and  our  descendants,  the  ability  to  bring  about 
such  a  result,  more  rapidly  and  prosperously  than  could  any 
other  of  the  races  of  men.  All  the  fundamental  materials  of 
climate,  soil,  water,  vegetation,  stone  and  ore  await  there  the 
plastic  powers  of  industry,  order  and  law.  Nature,  to  be  sure, 
in  many  parts,  wears  features  of  harshness,  as  well  as  gran 
deur — mountainous  ranges,  capped  with  eternal  snows,  dark 
and  craggy  gorges,  sterile  wastes,  protracted  droughts  and  tem 
pestuous  floods — aspects  common  to  Switzerland,  Norway, 
Scotland,  Circassia  and  Palestine.  But  there,  also,  are  broad 
valleys,  luxuriant  with  fruits,  grain,  flowers  and  pasturage — 

noble  forests — copious  and  teeming  rivers — and  other  charac- 
3 


26 

teristics  of  the  most  cherished  lands.  To  found  and  foster  a 
series  of  Commonwealths  from  the  centre  to  the  Western 
coasts  of  this  continent — to  be  the  parent,  as  it  were,  of  a 
boundless,  countless  and  exulting  population,  inhabiting  to  all 
futurity  a  domain  first  rescued  from  savage  solitude  by  our  own 
generation,  is,  as  it  would  seem  to  me,  an  aim  so  magnificent 
as  well  as  philanthropic  and  Christian,  as  to  make  almost  con 
temptible  the  inquiry  into  present  positive  value. 

We  must  remember  that  value  is  essentially  the  product  of 
labor,  and  that  few  things  in  their  rough  and  native  conditions, 
apart  from  their  susceptibility  to  improvement,  are  much  to  be 
prized.  The  wilderness,  however,  must  be  desolate  beyond 
all  example,  which  American  pioneers  will  not  rapidly  open  to 
sunshine  and  settlement.  The  value  of  New  Mexico  and 
California  is  not  to  be  judged  simply  by  their  own  inherent 
qualities.  We  must  take  also  into  consideration  their  adapta 
bility,  as  spheres  of  action,  to  powers,  habits  and  tastes,  which 
we  know  ourselves  to  possess.  If  Providence,  in  shaping  the 
characteristics  of  our  people,  has  placed  in  their  hands  the  ap 
propriate  talisman,  they  have  but  to  advance  in  order  to  dispel 
the  desert  and  turn  solitude  into  song.  And  is  it  not  so  ?  As  yet, 
unspoiled  by  luxury,  their  heads,  hands  and  hearts  are  acute, 
hardy  and  firm  enough,  to  repeat  in  the  coming  century,  if  not 
to  double,  their  wonderful  progress  in  the  one  just  elapsed. 
While  we  look  at  Ohio,  Louisiana,  Michigan,  Missouri,  Wis 
consin,  Florida  and  Arkansas,  is  it  possible  to  question  the  in 
vestment  in  the  raw  material  of  our  new  empire,  or  to  doubt 
its  early  working  out  the  most  precious  of  all  profits,  free  and 
flourishing  States  ? 

To  such  of  our  fellow-citizens  who  view  with  discontent  the 
enlargement  of  our  territory,  it  may  be  some  consolation,  that 


27 

this  treaty  emphatically  provides  against  farther  extension 
South.  No  change  is  ever  to  be  made  in  this  boundary,  "  except 
by  the  express  and/ree  consent  of  both  nations,  lawfully  given 
by  the  general  government  of  each,  in  conformity  with  its 
own  constitution"  The  stipulation  is  stringent  and  unequivo 
cal.  Its  covert  allusion  to  the  annexation  of  Texas  cannot  be 
mistaken — and  it  is  an  inviolable  pledge  by  both  contracting 
parties  that  such  a  case  shall  never  be  again  enacted.  Tamau- 
iipas.  New  Leon,  Coahuila,  Chihuahua,  Sonora,  Lower  Cali 
fornia,  may  separately  or  together  achieve  independence — but, 
without  the  positive  and  constitutional  sanction  of  the  central 
authorities  in  Mexico,  not  one  of  them  can  be  admitted  into 
our  Union,  except  by  manifest  breach  of  faith.  The  general 
principles  and  practices  under  the  laws  of  nations,  to  which 
we  so  justly  appealed,  in  vindication  of  our  course  as  to  Texas, 
are  henceforward,  as  between  the  American  and  Mexican  con 
federacies,  specially  modified  and  restricted.  How  far  it  was 
either  prudent  or  politic  on  our  part  to  do  this,  has  ceased  to 
be  an  open  question  :  it  is  done — deliberately  and  voluntarily 
done — and  extension  in  that  quarter  is  arrested  by  an  insur 
mountable  barrier  of  national  honor  and  justice. 

The  striking  features  of  incidental  boundary  are  the  ten  de 
grees  of  Pacific  coast,  which,  uniting  with  the  Oregon  shore, 
make  a  sea  line  of  over  twelve  hundred  miles.  Several  con 
siderations  give  to  this  immense  value,  in  my  judgment. 

In  the  first  place,  it  secures  us  against  any  conterminous  rival 
in  the  rear,  or  between  our  interior  population  and  the  vast 
Southern  Ocean.  Our  citizens,  migrating  to  the  farthest  west, 
incur  no  hazard  of  encountering  a  foreign  hostility,  and  our 
national  treasury  need  be  little  appealed  to  for  their  protection. 
Had  an  ambitious  and  commercial  colony  been  planted,  by  an 


28 

European  monarchy,  with  its  trading  and  naval  rendezvous,  at 
San  Francisco,  or  San  Diego,  it  is  easy  to  perceive  the  checks 
and  embarrassments  to  which  their  prosperous  growth  must 
have  been  subjected. 

In  the  next  place,  for  the  purposes  of  an  active  intercourse 
with  the  rich  Orientals,  nothing  can  surpass  this  magnificent 
front  upon  their  great  highway.  The  world  never  has  wit 
nessed  a  commerce  like  that  which  must  circulate  in,  from,  and 
over  the  Mississippi  Valley,  when  steam,  while  uniting  our 
eastern  and  western  seaports,  shall  master  the  stormless  and 
boundless  waves  of  the  Pacific.  American  agriculture  and 
manufactures,  with  wide  outlets  on  either  hand,  must  send 
food,  clothing,  and  comfort  in  all  directions ;  and  our  country 
become,  as  it  were,  a  noble  reservoir  for  streams  of  wealth  re 
turning  from  every  land.  Suppose,  as  a  single  illustration, 
that  our  freights  of  flour,  corn,  and  pork,  had  as  direct  a  path 
way  to  three  hundred  millions  of  bug-eating  and  rat-relishing 
Chinese,  as  they  have  to  the  perishing  Irish,  we  know,  from  a 
recent  experience,  in  how  salutary  a  manner  we  should  be  af 
fected.  This  pathway  I  esteem  one  of  the  early  and  already 
ripening  fruits  of  the  treaty. 

Again : — My  opinion  always  has  been,  and  continues  to  be, 
that  apart  from  the  militia  of  the  respective  States,  the  regular 
and  standing  force  of  the  nation  should  be  vested  where  it  is 
safest  for  the  liberties  of  the  people,  to  wit,  in  a  navy.  I  do 
not  believe  that  the  sovereignty  and  rights  of  the  several  mem 
bers  of  this  Union  can  long  survive  the  establishment  of  large 
armies  under  central  control ;  but  your  navy  is  just  as  harmless 
to  your  domestic  institutions  and  polity,  when  in  countless 
squadrons  covering  your  coasts,  or  cheering  your  trade  in 
every  sea,  as  when  creeping  a  few  gun-boats  in  your  bays  and 


29 

rivers.  Instead  of  constituting  forts,  garrisons  and  military 
armaments,  spreading  on  a  long  frontier,  or  stationed  in  the 
midst  of  our  citizens,  alike  expensive  and  charing,  the  pro 
tecting  power  of  the  nation  should  be  out  of  its  limits,  upon 
the  two  oceans  ;  unseen,  but  undoubted  bulwarks  against  the 
respective  continents  of  Europe  and  Asia. 

I  have  thus  thrown  together  for  you  "  my  thoughts  on  the 
Treaty  of  Peace."  I  intended  to  deal  with  several  details 
more  largely ;  but  perceiving  that  incidentally  they  have  been 
touched  upon,  my  conscience  will  not  permit  me  to  open  on 
your  patience  a  fresh  succession  of  batteries.  One  topic,  I  dare 
say,  as  it  is  the  rage  of  the  season,  you  will  be  surprised  to 
discern  wholly  absent.  You  doubtless  think  it  naturally,  if  not 
inseparably,  connected  with  the  Treaty.  I  do  not.  Acquisi 
tion  or  extension  of  territory  is  one  thing — the  after  govern 
ment  of  that  territory  is  another.  It  manifests  great  sectional 
jealousy,  or  an  inveterate  distrust  of  the  Constitution,  to  say 
that  we  cannot  enlarge  our  limits  without  endangering  the 
Union.  Such  a  position  partakes  of  the  diseased  prudence  of 
a  man  who  would  reject  wealth,  under  the  apprehension  that 
its  inheritance  might  cause  controversy  among  his  children ;  or, 
more  aptly  still,  it  squares  with  the  philosophy  of  one  who  re 
treats  from  all  female  society,  lest  he  should  prove  an  unfaith 
ful  husband.  Entertaining  no  such  sentiment,  not  having  in 
politics  eaten  of  "  the  insane  root  which  takes  the  reason  pri 
soner,"  I  have  deemed  the  matter  wholly  irrrelevant.  Indeed , 
I  believe  you  have  heretofore  had  my  views  in  relation  to  it, 
when  the  occasion  was  appropriate  and  direct. 
Always  faithfully  yours, 

G.  M.  DALLAS. 

10th  October,  1848. 

To  WILLIAM  WHITE  CHEW,  ESQ.,  Gennantown,  Pa. 


